Economist Article: Blood Simple?

aaron_c

aaron_c

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From this week's economist (print edition!):

Chronic-fatigue syndrome

Blood simple?

A new test may diagnose a mysterious illness, and also help to explain it

...Scepticism about CFS’s true nature is reinforced by the number of causes proposed for it. Viruses, bacteria, fungi and other types of parasite have all had the finger pointed at them. So have various chemicals and physical trauma. Evidence that CFS truly does deserve all three elements of its name has accumulated over the years but a definitive diagnostic test has remained elusive. Until, perhaps, now. For in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Robert Naviaux of the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues published evidence that the metabolisms of those diagnosed with CFS are all changing in the same way...
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Nice to see good press like this in such a mainstream magazine. And a British one at that!
 
D

Denise

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aaron_c said:
From this week's economist (print edition!):

Chronic-fatigue syndrome

Blood simple?

A new test may diagnose a mysterious illness, and also help to explain it

Nice to see good press like this in such a mainstream magazine. And a British one at that!
Click to expand...

Good press is good.
Yet the first comment supports somatic treatments -
"such as EMDR, somatic experiencing, sensorimotor psychotherapy, brain spotting, EFT and others are one way that supports human physiology to shift back to physiological states of relaxed vigilance and health even years or decades following traumatic events."
http://www.economist.com/node/21706241/comments#comments
 
Hutan

Hutan

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The person making that comment appears to be a doctor (MD after the name) (ETA: I posted this before seeing @Denise's post)
I have been researching the physiological and nervous system effects of traumatic life events such as adverse childhood experiences of "ACEs", accidents, surgery, abuse, falls etc in the origins and development of chronic fatigue.
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The somatically based approaches for treating trauma such as EMDR, somatic experiencing, sensorimotor psychotherapy, brain spotting, EFT and others are one way that supports human physiology to shift back to physiological states of relaxed vigilance and health even years or decades following traumatic events.
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I thought initially she was using the word 'somatically' (ie of the body) incorrectly. But she appears to be suggesting psychological treatments that have a somatic element. eg (definitions found on the internet)

Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Biolateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing.
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EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over five thousand years, but without the invasiveness of needles. Instead, simple tapping with the fingertips is used to input kinetic energy onto specific meridians on the head and chest while you think about your specific problem - whether it is a traumatic event, an addiction, pain, etc. -- and voice positive affirmations.
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Brace yourself for the 'psycho bit' of BPS continuing to get a bit more 'bio' - making the bullshit rather harder to see.
 
TiredSam

TiredSam

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Denise said:
She is a somatic psychotherapist who has chronic fatigue (says she has had it for 18+ years).
Her comment seems to be pushing her particular world view.
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Wow. I have occasionally thought that the only way one of the BPS crowd would accept that ME is a physiological illness would be if they suffered from it themselves.

It would appear that although Veronique Mead has suffered from "chronic fatigue" for 18+ years and is unable to work because of it, it hasn't dented her faith in her beliefs one bit, even though she hasn't been able to cure herself.* Hasn't she tried CBT or GET?

EFT, energy meridians blah blah. Why does she hold on to a belief system that is of no use to her, except that it gave her an income before she became too ill to see clients?

Quack, heal thyself.

*EDIT: I suppose it's possible that she thinks being worse than she was counts as "recovery".
 
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Snowdrop

Snowdrop

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She's got a book to sell. :lol: :rolleyes:

Apparently the science backs her up. All things lead to trauma. You can't blast this kind of thinking open, it has to fade away as it's irrelevance is revealed to everyone else.
 
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JaimeS

JaimeS

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EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over five thousand years, but without the invasiveness of needles. Instead, simple tapping with the fingertips is used to input kinetic energy onto specific meridians on the head and chest while you think about your specific problem - whether it is a traumatic event, an addiction, pain, etc. -- and voice positive affirmations.
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It's safe to say that this would be literally like torture for me.

"Think of everything that's ever upset you while I tap on your head."

"I... don't really want to think of everything that's ever upset me?"

"Repression! Out, out, evil spirit!"

...All while repeating 'positive affirmations': "I am safe. I am surrounded by a protective halo of light."

That kind of cognitively-dissonant bullshit was one of the only things I really disliked about going to an alt med school.

-J
 
aaron_c

aaron_c

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I am concerned that we may be a little too enthusiastic in our rebuttal of Dr. Mead's opinion. While I agree with 90% of what yall have brought up--healer, heal thyself!--I don't think we should assume that we know what Dr. Naviaux would (will?) find if/when he contrasts ME/CFS, dauer, and PTSD--as he apparently feels needs to be done. Dr. Mead certainly seems to think she knows what the outcome will be, and it is one more problem with her argument. But...lets not emulate her.

I also do not think that Dr. Mead having written a book on the subject is inherently sinister. If Dr. Ron Davis wrote a book on ME/CFS would that be a conflict of interest that disqualified him from opining on the subject? And if he shared his opinion without mentioning the book, would the omission strike an ominous tone?

Am I missing something? Is there a reason that her omission is in poor taste?

As you pointed out so well @JaimeS, the main problem seems to be that she sells her psychotherapy as a cure. And that this bill of goods ends up encouraging poor quality psychological research into ME/CFS instead of the biomedical stuff we so desperately need. And (as I point out in my comment that you can find below) that she doesn't seem to have read the research.

I think Dr. Mead has put the cart before the horse.

Dr. Mead equates dauer--and by extension ME/CFS--with the effects of trauma. This is a potentially dangerous overgeneralization. Dr. Naviaux specifically compares ME/CFS and dauer to the cell danger response (CDR) and finds "that the direction of CFS abnormalities was opposite to ... the CDR." In a past paper ("Metabolic Features of the Cell Danger Response") Naviaux mentions PTSD as one of many conditions typified by increases in the CDR. In other words, it seems possible that by conflating dauer and the traumatic response, Dr Mead may be as far from the truth as it is possible in this case to be.

But this is pure speculation. In the conclusion he notes that comparisons need to be made between dauer, ME/CFS and--among other things--PTSD "to validate the universality and specificity of these findings"

Hopefully Dr. Naviaux will get that chance. In the mean time, I suggest that we stop giving theories of psychological pathogenesis a free pass, and spend the money on biomedical research instead.
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V

Valentijn

Senior Member
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Denise said:
"such as EMDR, somatic experiencing, sensorimotor psychotherapy, brain spotting, EFT and others are one way that supports human physiology to shift back to physiological states of relaxed vigilance and health even years or decades following traumatic events."
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Another quack who can't read - neither the article, the research it discusses, nor any other ME research, apparently. Prospective studies have shown that there is no link between trauma, etc, and developing ME.

It's very sad when people feel compelled to display their ignorance so prominently, and with their full name and professional credentials attached :p
 
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